Monthly Archives: August 2018

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, September 10

Security forces have made a second major recovery of arms, including M-16 rifles, in Kashmir since Tuesday evening.

The latest recovery was made at Dulanja village along the Line of Control in the Uri sector of north Kashmir’s Baramulla district.

A senior police officer said the recovery of arms at Dulanja village in Uri was made following a specific input that arms and ammunition were dumped in the area to “fuel violence in the Valley”.

“Following an input, a joint operation was launched by the police and Army on Wednesday. The search continued through the day, culminating in the recovery of arms and ammunition. The recoveries included two M-16 Rifles, its four magazines, two pistols and four magazines,” a senior police officer said.

A case has been registered.

This is the second recovery of arms in the last two days in Kashmir. On late Tuesday two local Jaish-e-Mohammad overground workers were arrested near the Jawahar tunnel at Qazigund in south Kashmir. They were transporting arms in a truck from the Jammu region. The recovery also included a US-made M-4 rifle and six pistols. The police have constituted a special investigation team (SIT) to probe the case.

Sources said the initial investigation had revealed that a militant associate was in contact with an active militant in Pakistan to ferry arms in the truck.

“The militant associates collected arms from Samba on the intervening night of September 5 and 6 and moved towards the Kashmir valley. On September 8, at around midnight, they were apprehended after discovery of weapons during a search of the truck,” they said.

Srinagar, September 10

After the use of a quadcopter by Pakistan’s ISI in J&K, the Army has issued an alert along the Line of Control (LoC) in the Valley as it believes the drones could be used for dropping weapons for terrorists.

Lt Gen BS Raju, General-Officer-in-Command of XV Corps, said after an incident in the Jammu region, “we have alerted all formations to keep a check on any flying object seen along the LoC”. He said the terrorists in the Valley were facing shortage of arms and ammunition and they were desperately looking for some help from across the border. — PTI

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 10

Months after the Supreme Court (SC) told the Army that all women short service commissioned (SSC) officers have to be considered for permanent commission (PC), the Army’s process has raised several new questions.

The latest is the issue of how women SSC officers, who have completed 14 years of service, will clear a selection board, including medical fitness parameters alongside men and women officers, who have completed 10 years of service.

In other words, these women SSC officers will be competing for same posts with colleagues who are younger and would be expectedly more fit. They have appealed against the decision highlighting what they call as unjust testing parameters and sought some relaxations to bring them at par with their younger counterparts.

In due course, this selection board, called SB-5 in military parlance, and its associated physical parameters include those who completed 10 years of service. However, since there was no provision for grant of permanent commission to women SSC officers, they were never made part of such a selection process.

Recruitment Process raises new questions

The physical parameters for the women SSC officers, who have completed 14 years of service and those with 10-year service, are same. Concerns are being raised as younger officers, competing for same posts, are expectedly more fit.

United Nations, September 11

Hitting out at Pakistan, India has said the country foments a “culture of violence” at home and across its borders and its “deplorable” human rights records and discriminatory treatment of religious minorities is a cause of “persistent concern” for the global community.

“Unfortunately, we have witnessed another attempt by the delegation of Pakistan to exploit a UN platform for hate speech against India,” Counsellor in the Permanent Mission of India to the UN, Paulomi Tripathi, said on Thursday at the high-level forum on the ‘Culture of Peace’ at the 74th United Nations General Assembly.

“This happens at a time when Pakistan continues to foment a culture of violence at home and across its borders,” Tripathi said.

India’s strong rebuke came as Pakistan’s UN envoy Munir Akram made references to Jammu and Kashmir, the Babri Masjid demolition and construction of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya during his remarks to the virtual forum on ‘Culture of Peace’.

“Pakistan’s deplorable human rights records and discriminatory treatment of religious and ethnic minorities is a cause of persistent concern for the international community,” Tripathi said.

“Blasphemy laws are used against religious minorities such as Hindus, Christians and Sikhs, to violate their human rights and dignity,” she said, adding that women and girls remain particularly vulnerable in Pakistan as they are abducted, raped, forcibly converted and married to their violators.

The pandemic had only aggravated the situation, she said.

“Talk of ‘culture of peace’ from the delegation of Pakistan is nothing but a decoy to divert attention from their own shameful records. Before making absurd allegations against India, where equal rights of people of all faiths are guaranteed by the Constitution, the delegation of Pakistan must do itself a favour of looking at their own system and records of protecting minorities,” Tripathi said.

The Indian diplomat emphasised that a culture of peace did not merely signify absence of war but embodied a predisposition towards resolving differences through dialogue and understanding. PTI

Sandeep Dikshit

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 11

India and China agreed on a five-point approach that entails further talks to end tensions on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) following talks between their Foreign Ministers that saw both of them touch on the linkages between bilateral ties and the border problem.

Sources here said the meeting saw the Indian side seeking disengagement in all the friction areas with the military commanders to work out the phasing of final deployment to permanent posts. The Chinese side was also told that its large amassing of troops had created several flash points along the LAC.

A joint statement at the end of the two-and-a-half-hour discussion in Moscow between Foreign Ministers S Jaishankar and Wang Yi saw concurrence on the path to resolving the tensions but their narratives diverged on whether the border issue is linked to the overall trajectory of bilateral relations.

The Chinese embassy e-mailed a version of the meeting that quoted Wang as saying that India-China ties were once again at a “crossroads”. Wang outlined China’s “stern” position on the situation at the border and called on the Indian side to “move back all men and equipment that have trespassed”. The Chinese side said it was willing to hold “enhanced dialogue” at the field commander level to facilitate the process.

It quoted Jaishankar as saying that India “does not consider the development of bilateral relations as dependent on the boundary question and India does not want to go backwards”.

Sources here did not contest this Chinese assertion about Jaishankar. But they contradicted the Chinese quote about Jaishankar indirectly by saying that the recent incidents in eastern Ladakh “have” impacted the development of bilateral relationship. Sources underlined that while India recognised that a final solution would take time, peace on the border was essential for further developing bilateral ties in other spheres.

While agreeing on a five-point agenda to improve the current situation on the LAC which “is not in the interest of either side”, Jaishankar and Wang said both sides would continue dialogue at three levels – through the Special Representative mechanism, Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination and field commanders level.

The ministers agreed that as the situation eases, the two sides should expedite work to conclude new Confidence Building Measures to maintain and enhance peace and tranquillity in the border areas.

The interaction held on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meeting agreed not to allow differences to become disputes by following all the existing agreements and protocol on China-India boundary affairs, maintain peace and tranquillity in the border areas and avoid any action that could escalate matters.

Jaishankar’s interaction follows another one held last week between Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and his Chinese counterpart, also in Moscow, where both ministers set out their respective positions on restoring normalcy on the LAC.

Earlier on Thursday, Jaishankar and Wang participated in two multilateral interactions in which bilateral disputes were not discussed. The main show for which Jaishankar had gone to Moscow—the meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation—was held in the morning.

The Foreign Ministers held in-person talks after three rounds of virtual meetings of the working mechanism on the border and several army commander-level meetings failed to stem a series of aggressive actions that culminated in shots being fired at the LAC for the first time in 45 years.